


Epilogue

by SingingInTheRaiin



Series: Minerva McGonagall and the Troublesome Boy [9]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Gen, M/M, New School Year, Weddings, i didn't think it was necessary to have a train station scene, last minute wedding gifts, pre-wedding jitters, since Harry and Draco aren't super close friends with any of the other parents that would be there, sometimes people retire when they get old
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-03-30 20:32:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19035097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: The End





	Epilogue

**Author's Note:**

> I'm terribly sorry for the delay with this, and I hope it does a satisfactory job of finishing up this series! Being on summer vacation has put me on lazy mode which can make it difficult for me to summon the energy to write, but if there are any problems with this, just let me know and I will do whatever I can to fix them!

Minerva arched one eyebrow and hoped that it came across as stern as usual despite the late hour. She was definitely getting too old to be woken up in the middle of the night. And Harry wasn’t even one of her students anymore, so really, there was no excuse. On the other hand, she knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t go and disturb her if it wasn’t something important, so she just waited patiently for him to start speaking.

He shifted awkwardly on his feet, and then clasped his hands behind his back. He took a deep breath in, and then slowly let it out. “It’s occurred to me that I don’t think I’ve ever thanked you.” She blinked once, then furrowed her eyebrows, hoping for some elaboration to that statement. “I mean, you’ve done a lot for me, including saving me from a miserable life being raised by bad people, and you’ve been so kind to me all these years, taking me in yourself when you already had so much else to deal with. And I don’t think I’ve ever told you this before, but… but I’ve always thought of you as my mother.”

Minerva had to blink a few times to stop herself from tearing up at that declaration. While she had loved the boy like he was her own for so many years now, she had never been sure of what exactly he felt about her, and hearing him say it so blatantly was one of the happiest moments in her recent years. Though it also made her somewhat suspicious, as well. “Are you trying to butter me up for something?”

Harry reached up to scratch at the back of his neck, and there was an awkward look on his face. “Ah… not exactly. I just, um, willyoucometomywedding?” he blurted out.

It didn’t take very long for Minerva to decipher that, though, because she was used to figuring out what nervous students were saying, and had become something of an expert in the art of understanding unclear speaking. But it still felt like she must have somehow misheard him. “Beg your pardon?”

Harry took a small step forward, and then just remained standing awkwardly in the center of the room. It was so strange to see him look like that, because it had been many years since he’d left behind his awkward teens. “Me and Draco proposed to each other. Somehow we had the strange luck of both making a go at it on the same night and everything. And we both said yes. He’s left for France for the week to stay with his parents and tell them the news.”

Minerva stared at Harry for several long seconds, in the way that never failed to make students squirm. “I’m very happy for you, Harry, but why exactly did you come to tell me in the middle of the night?”

He sighed, and then slowly sank down into the nearest chair, bowing his head down to stare aimlessly at his lap. Minerva started to fight the urge to go over there and hug him, but then realized that that was dumb, and decided to just follow her instincts. When she pulled away, Harry looked up to meet her eyes. “Considering that I just told you how we both proposed to each other, this is probably going to sound really dumb, but I’m not sure if I’m ready for this.”

She tilted her head slightly. “Why not? You and Draco had been practically inseparable since you were both eleven years old. How long ago was that?”

“Seventeen,” he mumbled. “We graduated ten years ago now. But in all that time, neither of us has ever dated anybody else. What if that’s a bad thing? And I still-” he cut himself off to take a deep breath in and then slowly let it out. “I still wake up from nightmares far too often for either of our peace of minds, and I know that Draco wants to have kids but I don’t think I could ever be a parent, and I think his parents have never really been fond of me, and I’m so boring compared to him and sometimes I just feel like such an idiot-”

Minerva had to cut him off there, and she held up one hand while giving Harry a reproachful look. “Awfully rude of you to come to my home this late at night just to insult my son.” Harry’s eyes widened at the term, but she pretended not to notice his reaction as she continued talking. “It’s been seventeen years, Harry. I’m fairly certain that if either of you was going to get bored of the other, it would have happened a long time ago. And though it may be slightly unusual to marry your first significant other, it isn’t as though it has never happened before. Some people just get it right the first time.”

They both just stared at each other for a moment before Harry finally curled up one corner of his mouth in a small smile. “You do have the magical ability to always be able to say precisely whatever it is that I need to hear at any given moment. I am sorry for disturbing you so late, though. I meant to wait until morning, but I was talking with Sirius, and he got so excited at the idea of helping to plan the wedding that I guess I let myself get a little worked up over all of it.”

“A little?” Minerva asked, making the teasing obvious in her voice.

Harry laughed. “Yeah, I guess that’s a little bit of an understatement, huh?” He slowly stood up, and stretched his arms up over his head. “I should probably be heading home,” he said quietly, though he made no move towards the fireplace so that he could floo back to the flat he shared with Draco.

Minerva rolled her eyes, and didn’t care that Harry saw her do it. “Oh just stay here for the night, or the entire week for all I care.” Before Harry could say anything else, she added in a slightly cross tone, “I could use an excuse to put off filling out some rather boring paperwork.” It wasn’t even entirely a lie; Minerva did wish that there was a way to put off that paperwork forever. But she was starting to get pretty old, and everyone wanted to make sure that a new head of Hogwarts had been chosen with plenty of time for training them before Minerva officially announced her retirement. But she preferred not to think about any of that, as it tended to make her feel even grumpier than usual. 

Harry grinned. “Happy to be of assistance.” He only hesitated for a few seconds before pulling Minerva into another hug. “Do you still have that spare bed in my old room?”

“I got rid of it ages ago, shortly after you moved out. Don’t forget that you are a wizard, though. There’s plenty of other things up there that you could transfigure into a bed. Or are you going to say that you didn’t learn anything from my classes in all your time at Hogwarts?”

Harry’s grin stayed firmly in place, and Minerva was relieved to see it. It always felt much better to see him looking happy than to see him looking insecure and unsure of himself, though of course she would be there to support him in either case. “Clearly it was a bad idea to wake you up like this. I didn’t think it was even possible for you to be grouchier than usual. I’m just going to let you head back to bed now.”

“And you will be doing the same, I expect? I don’t know what you do in your own home, but I am not running a midnight club.”

Harry laughed. “I was just going to wait and make myself a cup of tea, but now I’m a bit afraid to do that.” 

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes again. “May as well make two cups. It’s not as though I could possibly go straight back to sleep after all the racket you bring with you. How do you always manage to find yourself with so many troubles?” 

Harry shrugged. “I suppose it’s just a gift.” He turned on the stove to begin heating up the kettle. He was a bit of an odd boy, always insisting that the tea came out tasting better when the water wasn’t heated up by magic. It all tasted the same to Minerva, but if that’s what made Harry happy, then who was she to argue with it?

The two of them stayed awake and got caught up about all the little things that had been going on in both of their lives, until it got to the point that neither of them could really keep their eyes open. That’s when they set their teacups in the sink to deal with later, and then headed off to bed. Minerva generously transfigured her desk chair into a bed for Harry, and he shot her a grateful look. He was plenty talented in certain areas, but in others it was practically a safety hazard to even let him try, especially when he was already tired and stressed out.

She waited for another moment in the doorway, and then headed back to her own room, pulling on her sleeping cap and blowing out the candle that she’d lit when she’d first been woken up. It took her a little while to go back to sleep, despite how tired she was at the moment. It was always nice to see Harry, of course, but she did wish he could work on his timing a little bit in the future.

,,,

“Ah, Minerva… what are you doing here?”

Minerva gave Draco one of her classic raised eyebrow looks. “It is my son’s wedding.”

He nodded. “Right, of course! I just mean, uh, like, what are you doing here specifically?”

It was endearing to see that both of the young men were so nervous, while also somewhat strange considering how much of their lives had already been spent together. But she had never been married, so she wasn’t really sure whether it was something worth being very nervous about. “I came to find Harry. Do you know where he is?”

Draco shrugged. “My mother insisted that we can’t see each other until we’re actually up there to be married. I don’t know why. Apparently it’s bad luck or something. Which really doesn’t make any sense, since we both went to get our outfits tailored at the same time, so we’ve already both seen each other’s wedding clothes.”

Minerva couldn’t help the small smile that crossed her face as she listened to Draco’s nervous rambling (though she was sure that if she pointed it out, he would only get offended and insist that he had absolutely no reason to be nervous). “Well I hope he told you that you look very handsome. Now if you don’t mind, I need to go find that boy and make sure that he hasn’t managed to get himself into any trouble.” Though she didn’t think that even Harry would be able to find too much trouble at his own wedding of all places, but she did want to make sure that he wasn’t too nervous. The last couple of days had been a whirlwind of activity for him, and she hadn’t gotten the chance to talk with him since the rehearsal. 

She wandered down the hallway until she found Viktor leaned up against the wall next to a closed door. The look on his face made it seem as though he wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to be amused or annoyed. “Are you sure?” Harry’s voice rang out from behind the closed door.

Viktor snorted quietly before responding. “I’m positive. Now get out here and greet your mama. I’m going to head to the starting line.”

“I told you it’s not called that!” But Viktor just laughed and walked away rather than responding. It took another few seconds before the door finally swung open, and Harry stepped out into the hallway. His eyes flicked around for the sight of his best man, but then ended up settling on Minerva. His face was flushed red, though whether it was embarrassment or nerves was difficult to say. “Aren’t you supposed to be waiting outside with everyone else?”

Minerva slowly walked towards Harry, taking in the sight of him in his fancy dress robes. It was so difficult to ever get him to dress up. “Do you remember the Yule Ball from your fourth year?”

It didn’t take long for Harry to grimace at the memory. “Unfortunately. I think I lost track of how many times I stepped on Draco’s toes after the first hundred or so times.”

“If you’d paid more attention during my lessons,” Minerva started to chide. But then she cleared her throat. Now wasn’t the time for that. Getting married seemed like a time to be looking to the future, not getting stuck in the past. “You look very nice,” she said in a quieter tone. “I just wanted to give you this before the ceremony starts.” She reached into her pocket to pull out a small box, and then held it out to Harry. He took it, and then opened it, looking inside. “My grandparents gave that to my father when he turned seventeen, and he gave it to me when I did.”

Harry furrowed his eyes in confusion. “But you already gave me a pocketwatch when I turned seventeen?”

Merlin, why did he always manage to make Minerva feel so unsure of herself? With everyone else she was able to maintain her cool facade, but with Harry, it was somehow so much more difficult. “I know. This watch is special, though. Not just as a family heirloom, but as an even greater symbol of magic than that. If it wasn’t for this pocketwatch, I never would have gotten the chance to find you when I did.”

“What do you mean?”

Minerva knew that there wasn’t very long before the ceremony was set to begin, but she felt like it was important for Harry to know the story of how he ended up in her home. “The day I first met you, not counting when you were an infant, I was polishing several pieces of old jewelry, including that watch. I noticed that it wasn’t working, and did not want to try more than a couple of basic repair spells, since it is not my area of expertise. There is a muggle jeweler who I trusted to fix it, and was simply trying to waste time while waiting for him to finish repairing that watch. The inscription inside was written for my father originally, but I feel as though it is still appropriate.”

Harry gingerly took out the watch, clearly afraid of damaging the old thing, and carefully popped it open to read what was engraved on the side of the cover. “‘For our brilliant son. You may always bring us troubles in our peacetimes, but we would not want it any other way.’” He cleared his throat a couple of times, and his eyes started to look watery. Then he flung himself forward to pull Minerva into a hug, which was something that she happily accepted from him. “Thank you for this.” Even though he was already all done up, he unbuttoned one button of his vest so that he could set the pocketwatch in place, resting it in his vest pocket. “We should probably both head out there before everyone starts to wonder if we made a run for it.” He held out his elbow towards Minerva, a grin on his face despite the redness building up around his eyes. “Shall we?”

By the time the ceremony reached its conclusion and the two young men were officially declared to be each other’s husbands, Harry was not the only one there with tears in his eyes.

,,,

Minerva had retired many years ago and left the school in the capable hands of Severus Snape, but she had been invited back to make a speech during the opening night dinner. She had offered to give the young Lily Malfoy-Potter transportation to Hogwarts ahead of all her peers, but Harry had insisted that she needed to take the train as part of the experience of it all, and to give her a chance to get to know the other wizards and witches. Now Minerva was left to wait impatiently for her grandchild.

Even if she had never met the girl before, she would have known which one was Lily right away. She had messy black hair falling into her face, and when she finally reached up to pull it into a ponytail to keep it away, bright green eyes were revealed, along with the smattering of freckles that ran right over the bridge of her nose. 

As soon as Lily spotted Minerva, she began jumping up and down and waving excitedly. “Nana! Nana!” She poked the nearest first year in the shoulder and then pointed over at Minerva. “That’s my nan! She used to run this school!” The other student looked suitably impressed, though that may have been mostly just to appease Lily.

By the end of the sorting, Lily was sitting over at the Gryffindor table, and Minerva couldn’t stop herself from smiling proudly. Though her son and son-in-law were both Slytherins, Minerva was from a long line of Gryffindors, and knew that the Potters had been as well. Though to her surprise, it was only a few minutes into the feast before Lily hopped up and went over to the Slytherin table to begin talking animatedly to one of the first years she must have met on the train.

One of the professors got up and walked over to her. “I know that it might take some time to get used to, but generally we prefer students to stay seated by their houses and…” he trailed off for a moment, and then offered a small smile to the excitable girl. “You must have heard this before, but you look just like your father.”

Minerva was reminded of a time long ago when she had said something similar to a messy haired little boy. At the time, she never would have imagined that her life would have turned out the way that it had, but she wouldn’t change any of it for the world. The best decision she’d ever made in her life was taking in that unfortunate little child, and giving them both a family.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who has read this series and for all of the encouragement that I have receiver after each installment! I've had a really fun time writing this story, and I'd like to think that all of you have had a fun time reading it xD


End file.
